Presentation at the Federal University of Esparto Santo, Brazil
News
Sustaining Access to Justice in Europe: New Avenues for Costs and Funding
The team of the NWO Vici project ‘Affordable Access to Justice’ at Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University (Rotterdam), is organising the conference ‘Sustaining Access to Justice in Europe: New Avenues for Costs and Funding’ on 19 and 20 October 2023 at the Erasmus Paviljoen at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Access to civil justice is of paramount importance for enforcing citizens’ rights. At the heart of access to civil justice lies litigation funding and cost management. Yet, over the past decades, access to justice has been increasingly put under pressure due to retrenching governments, high costs of procedure, and the inefficiency of courts and justice systems. Within this context, the funding of litigation in Europe seems to be shifting from public to private sources. Private actors and innovative business models emerged to provide new solutions to the old problem of financial barriers of access to justice.
With the participation of policymakers, practitioners, academics, and civil society representatives from all over Europe and beyond, the conference seeks to delve deeper into the financial implications of access to justice and the different ways to achieve sustainable civil justice systems in Europe.
The topics addressed in this international academic conference will include the different methods of financing dispute resolution, particularly in the context of group litigation (third-party funding, crowdfunding, blockchain technologies), public interest litigation, developments in ADR/ODR, the new business models of legal professionals as well as law and economics aspects on litigation funding. The conference is supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Find the link to registration here.
Please find the preliminary conference programme below.
Call for papers Vici Conference Sustainable justice 2023.pdf
Provisional Programme.pdf
Published: May 3, 2021
Carlota Ucín was invited to participate in a webinar organized by the Research group Fundamentos do Processo Civil Contemporâneo (FPCC) coordinated by Professor Dr Hermes Zaneti Jr. at the Federal University of Espirito Santo, Brazil (UFES). In her presentation, she outlined the main features of Public Interest Litigation and how it may have a great impact on promoting access to justice of fundamental rights. In particular, she highlighted that the shift from public to private funding of civil litigation could be benefited from the Public Interest approach, which is more concentrated in raising certain claims that could imply lower cost with greater benefits. This can be explained in part because these claims may provoke the change of a bureaucratic practice or they could protect some public goods. The exchange was very enriching for both sides since Brazil has great experience in this kind of litigation and must face great dilemmas related to costs and access to justice.